Sleep Like a Tsar, Pay Like a Peasant: Business Class Bargains

2017 is the year of bargain airfares, both in coach and business class. And nowhere is this more evident than when traveling to India and Asia. So, get ready to relax with some chili-rubbed tenderloin, shrimp curry and champagne at 30,000 feet…for less than you ever thought possible!

Thanks to low oil prices (currently about $45/barrel) and the much-improved economy, there’s a lot of seats to international destinations like New Delhi (where our Splendors of India & The Ganges and Nepal & Bhutan Exploration vacations begin). And with all this competition comes a fierce battle for customers.

Voila! Business class bargains.

These deals can be had year-round on some carriers, and primarily during lower periods of business travel (i.e. in summer months, around holidays, etc.) on others.

China Southern and China Eastern, for example, routinely offer $2,500-ish roundtrip fares from the west coast to various Asian cities and India; with some US carriers not far behind during their “flash sales”.

[China Southern Business Class]

[China Eastern Business Class – courtesy of OneMileAtaTime.com]

Of course, many of us are loyal to a single U.S. airline in order to earn frequent flyer miles or elite status. Fortunately, most international carriers are members of one of the three big airline alliances:

So you can fly these international carriers and credit the miles to your AA, UA or DL account.

Louis CK once said about people who complain about air travel, “Just remember. You’re sitting in a chair. IN THE SKY.”

He’s right, of course. Flying is a miracle. But that doesn’t make the coach experience terribly pleasant these days, given 10-across seating and 31-inch seat pitch.

Fortunately, business class is something else altogether. Thanks to the changes in “hard product”, with airlines retrofitting planes with new and better seats, you will, more often than not, find lie-flat beds in business. And who doesn’t want to sleep in a BED in the sky?

So, you ask, how do I find these deals?

Many are available routinely and can be most easily compared via aggregator websites like Momondo and Kayak.

But some deals are only offered as flash sales. Fortunately, thanks to websites like The Flight Deal and All The Flight Deals, you can get free notifications of these sales – which often only last a day – and pounce.